Alex Cora Shoots Down Potential ‘Fix’ For Crowded Red Sox Outfield

The Boston Red Sox don’t have enough spots to give regular at-bats to Roman Anthony, Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela, Jarren Duran and Masataka Yoshida.

It’s not like they have very many options, either.

If the club chooses to retain all five — which appears to be the current plan — they’ll need to send someone to the bench. Anthony is going to play every single day. Duran has done that for the last two seasons, and has proven more than anyone else vying for time. Yoshida and Abreu could see time at designated hitter, but that position will also need to be kept open at times for Triston Casas and Willson Contreras.

Rafaela could also be moved to shortstop or second ba… what’s that? Red Sox manager Alex Cora doesn’t want to go through that ordeal again?

“No, probably not,” Cora said when presented with that idea at “Fenway Fest” on Saturday, as seen on NESN.

Cora has every right to hate that idea, as that little experiment has been disastrous every single time the club tries it.

Rafaela is not only one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball — taking home the Gold Glove in 2025 — but he also slashes .256/.301/.412 across his career when playing the outfield, opposed to .192/.219/.295 when playing the infield.

The Red Sox don’t want any part of those latter numbers.

Boston will need to figure out the plan at second base and third base, though that could become a non-issue if they re-sign Alex Bregman to play the infield alongside Trevor Story, Marcelo Mayer and Contreras/Casas.